The present invention relates to a tiltable and slidable roof panel assembly for a motor vehicle, comprising a roof panel supported by a front support and rearward lifter means on a respective guide rail extending along a side of an aperture in the vehicle roof and rearwardly beyond the aperture of the fixed roof, the lifter means being adapted to be driven by driving means, on the one hand in a sliding movement along the guide rail in order to slide the panel, and on the other hand in an up and down movement to enable the panel to move between its closed position and an upwardly displaced venting position and between its closed position and a downwardly displaced position prior to the sliding movement of the panel, said lifter means including a set-out lever being at least pivotally in engagement with the panel through a first pivot on the one hand, and being pivotally and slidably connected with the guide rail by a second pivot on the other hand, and further including an auxiliary lever being in engagement with the set-out lever spaced from the second pivot during the pivoting movement of the panel, the movements of the set-out lever being controlled by a forcing guide.
Such a roof panel assembly is known from European patent application No. 0 343 750. Herein the set-out lever and the auxiliary lever together form scissors. The first adjusting movement of the scissors from the lowest sliding position takes place through the displacement of the scissors with respect to a slide plate in which there are formed guide slots forming a forcing guide with guide pins of the scissors.
In an earlier embodiment of these scissors (see U.S. Pat. No. 4,601,512) the first adjusting movement of the scissors takes place through a displacement of the sliding plate with respect to the scissors of which the front leg is locked against sliding movements.
The object of the present invention is to further improve these prior art roof panel assemblies.
For this purpose the roof panel assembly according to the invention is characterized in that the lever and the auxiliary lever are guided during the pivoting movement of the panel such that they both pivot and slide in respect to each other, whereby during the relative sliding movement between the set-out lever and the auxiliary lever one of these is substantially retained against sliding movement relative to the guide rail by means of a locking stop.